« Why Hillary Will Not Be VP | Main | Listening to Charlie Rangel speak right now »

What Obama can't do

04 Jun 2008 09:59 am

For many, many reasons, I am excited about the prospect of an Obama presidency. But I want us to be really clear about what our expectations are. There is certainly this sentiment that an Obama presidency represents a "get out white guilt free" card. I guess. Frankly, I think white guilt is overrated. Where are all these white people who can't get through the day without thinking about their ancestral culpability in the Middle Passage? I'm not even saying that would be helpful, so much as I'm saying I'm not sure how potent a force it is. More likely "white guilt" is one of these phrases pundits throw out to give the country more credit than it deserves. At virtually no point in the long black freedom struggle have masses of white people, propelled by their guilt, flocked to the sides of blacks. That doesn't mean anything about whites, as much as it's a statement about human beings. I don't see masses of blacks flocking to support gay marriage either, despite the historical parallels.

OK folks I'm rambling again. Here's my point: There are certain things that Obama can't cure. One of them comes to us courtesy of Daily Kos blogger D-T, who is laboring under the misapprehension that lots of people actually read this blog. Be that as it may, the kid raise some good points about a disturbing death penalty case in Georgia. Isn't it fascinating how the death penalty is basically no longer a presidential issue? Anyway, the case involves a Curtis Osborne who committed a brutal murder, but ended up on death row because his defense attorney--not the prosecutor--was racist. Wait, did I say racist? I meant he harbored some racial resentment against people who were darker than him. Word up. Dude actually said of his own defendant, "the little nigger deserves the death penalty." Well, he is going to get it, evidently. Curtis Osborne is set to be executed tonight.

Comments (14)

This whole white guilt thing is bullshit. People who judge others by skin color are ignorant, everyone deserves to be treated justly and fairly regardless. To say that someone fighting for justice and fairness is doing so out of guilt for the past is to deny that there is in fact injustice today. Of course as you point out, ain't a whole lot of white folks out there fighting.

Posted by Maineiac | June 4, 2008 10:25 AM

I basically take your point, but I do think white guilt, or something like it that isn't as catchy a phrase (e.g. "a vague uneasy feeling, which you resent, that somehow you're part of a system that keeps down the black folk, or that you should feel guilty that you tend to stereotype black people in what seem to you relatively harmless ways (why do they play their music so loudly?), and bythewaywhyareAllenIversonandMichaelIrvinsuchthugs?!) is a potent force, it's just not potent in any kind of constructive way. Instead it's part of this big ball of guilt, resentment, fear, anxiety, etc. that prevents a lot of white people from seeing race issues clearly and also makes them very susceptible to the kind of racial resentment-stoking politics that the right has been very good at deploying.

Posted by Dan | June 4, 2008 10:29 AM

I am with you however you said this:

"I don't see masses of blacks flocking to support gay marriage either, despite the historical parallels."

I work with counseling gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual youth. I do not hold any reservations. However I will tell you that many blacks' hesitation is based in religion. You know that blacks are very religious. That is the issue. That should not be overlooked.

Posted by LoveTruth | June 4, 2008 11:00 AM

"At virtually no point in the long black freedom struggle have masses of white people, propelled by their guilt, flocked to the sides of blacks."

1861-1865?

Posted by Spike | June 4, 2008 11:08 AM

Propelled by patriotism and a desire to preserve the Union. Wasn't it Lincoln who said he'd preserve the Union, if he could, by freeing no slaves?

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | June 4, 2008 11:29 AM

Lincoln did say that. But he also ran on a platform that was pretty explicit in its anti-slavery policy. Politicians say a lot of things. In the end, he did, in fact, free the slaves, and used the masses of white people in the Union Army to do it.

I agree that it certainly can't all be chalked up to "white guilt" just as the war wasn't 100% about slavery. Still, preserving the Union wouldn't have even been at issue had not aggressive "white guilt" on the part of the North induced secessionism on the part of the South. Harriet Beecher Stowe, and all that...

Posted by Spike | June 4, 2008 11:52 AM

Point taken.

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | June 4, 2008 12:02 PM

Slavery was wrong, I doubt if my ancestors who fought in the war (on the union side) did so out of guilt. I am also reasonable sure they were biased against blacks. If I am on the street and I see a black man getting mugged do I help him only if I feel guilty that other white people have mistreated other blacks? That doesn't make any sense to me. I help him because in the right thing to do.

Posted by Maineiac | June 4, 2008 12:33 PM

Isn't this what Jeremiah Wright and Farrakhan talk about? These type of prevailing inequalities and injustices? Admittedly with a little fire breathing included.

I thought we were not allowed to talk about stuff like this or else be accused of secretly wanting these type of inequalities to linger on, so that money could be made off these divisons.

You right, we need to judge Obama, if he becomes President on what the heck he does in power in relation to this type of BS, and not just that he got elected, although that is damn impressive if that happens.

I definitely give him the benefit of the doubt, but the proof is in the pudding.

Posted by Eat My Shorts | June 4, 2008 12:37 PM

Chalk up another disturbing death penalty case for the state of Georgia - Troy Anthony Davis is an innocent man, but legal technicalities outweigh justice in the old (same)confederacy.

Posted by danell | June 4, 2008 12:38 PM

Ta-Nehisi--well before the civil war, the Quakers and Congregationalists (now UCC churches, like Trinity, but historically white) were actively working against slavery. Read up on the Amistad case, for example. I agree with Spike here--these abolitionists (and the economic "push-back" from the south against them) were one of the major causes of the war.

Posted by Sybil | June 4, 2008 12:47 PM

Meh, the point isn't that NO whites were opposing slavery, or that NO whites were opposing racism. It isn't even that a significant number weren't. Here it is, put simply:

"At virtually no point in the long black freedom struggle have masses of white people, propelled by their guilt, flocked to the sides of blacks."

I'd like think the Quakeres, UCC, and abolitionists at large weren't motivated by "white guilt" but by a desire to be on the right side.

Posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates | June 4, 2008 1:13 PM

Oh! Ok--agreed then. Motivated by ethics/humanism not guilt. Sorry for being defensive and misunderstanding.

Posted by Sybil | June 4, 2008 1:46 PM

Maybe White guilt is over rated. I am white and have no guilt about something someone else's ancestors did. Also I find it interesting that Obama is exclusively considered a Black man even though he is half white. It is as though he received no genetic material of half of his white ancestry? He was also raised well by his good White family and educated at White institutions including the Ivy Leagues...and the Black community wants to take total credit for Obama??

Posted by Scott D | June 5, 2008 12:14 PM